Royal Rumble (2019)
Royal Rumble (2019) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw, SmackDown and 205 Live brands. It took place on January 27, 2019, at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. It was the thirty-second event under the Royal Rumble chronology. Ten matches were contested at the event, including three on the pre-show. In the main event, Seth Rollins won the men's Royal Rumble match, while Becky Lynch won the women's Royal Rumble match after losing her SmackDown Women's Championship match against Asuka in the opening bout. In the penultimate match, Brock Lesnar retained the Universal Championship against Finn Bálor. Also on the card, Daniel Bryan defeated AJ Styles to retain the WWE Championship and Ronda Rousey retained the Raw Women's Championship against Sasha Banks. The event featured the return of Jeff Jarrett, who competed in his first WWE match since the 1999 No Mercy event. Production Background As is tradition, the winner of the 30-man Royal Rumble match earned a world championship match at WrestleMania 35 for his choice of either Raw's Universal Championship or SmackDown's WWE Championship. The event also hosts the second-ever 30-woman Royal Rumble, in which the winner earned a women's championship match at WrestleMania 35 for her choice of either Raw's Women's Championship or SmackDown's Women's Championship. Storylines The card will include matches that result from scripted storylines that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches, with results predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands. Storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live. At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, Fabulous Truth (Carmella and R-Truth) defeated Mahalicia (Alicia Fox and Jinder Mahal) (with The Singh Brothers) by submission to win the Mixed Match Challenge and received the 30th entrant of their respective Royal Rumble matches at the Royal Rumble. AT TLC, Braun Strowman defeated Baron Corbin in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match to earn a Universal Championship match against Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble. At TLC, Strowman defeated Corbin in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match, thus stripping Corbin of his authoritative power and earning a Universal Championship match against Lesnar at the Royal Rumble. On the January 14 edition of Raw, Strowman confronted WWE chairman Vince McMahon in the parking lot. Strowman proceeded to flip over McMahon's limo, resulting in a furious McMahon fining Strowman $100,000 and revoking his place in the title match against Lesnar at the pay-per-view. Later that night, Finn Bálor, John Cena, Drew McIntyre and Corbin expressed their interests in facing Lensar at the Royal Rumble. Mr. McMahon scheduled a fatal four-way match where the winner would face Lesnar, which Bálor won after defending his spot earlier in the night against Jinder Mahal. At TLC, Daniel Bryan defeated AJ Styles to retain the WWE Championship. On the January 1, 2019 episode of SmackDown, Styles earned another opportunity against Bryan at the Royal Rumble by defeating Randy Orton, Mustafa Ali, Rey Mysterio, and Samoa Joe in a fatal five-way match. At TLC, Asuka defeated Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in a triple threat Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match to win the SmackDown Women's Championship. After Becky, Charlotte and Carmella all demanded a title opportunity on the January 1, 2019 episode of SmackDown, a triple threat match between the three was scheduled for the following week; Becky won the match, thereby earning a title match at the Royal Rumble. On the December 26, 2018, episode of 205 Live, 205 Live General Manager Drake Maverick scheduled Buddy Murphy to defend the WWE Cruiserweight Championship at the Royal Rumble in a fatal four-way match with his opponents to be decided in qualifying matches. On January 2, 2019, during 205 Live episode, Kalisto and Akira Tozawa qualified for the match defeating Lio Rush and Drew Gulak respectively. The final spot was Hideo Itami defeated Cedric Alexander respectively. At TLC, Ronda Rousey retained the Raw Women's Championship against Nia Jax. On the January 7, 2019 episode of Raw, Rousey told Alexa Bliss that she wanted to face Sasha Banks next. Jax interrupted, stating she wanted a rematch against Rousey. Banks came out, humbled by Rousey's comments, and challenged Jax to a match in which the winner would earn a championship opportunity. Banks defeated Jax to earn a Raw Women's Championship match against Rousey at the Royal Rumble. During the SmackDown tapings on December 18, 2018, Rusev defeated Shinsuke Nakamura for the WWE United States Championship (the match would air December 25). On the January 1, 2019 episode, Rusev and his wife/manager Lana were celebrating the title win, and Nakamura would attack Rusev (with Lana also getting hurt in the scuffle). On the January 15, 2019 edition of SmackDown Live, it was announced that Nakamura would get his championship rematch against Rusev at the Royal Rumble. Aftermath Raw The following night on Raw, Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey issued an open challenge that was answered by Bayley. After retaining, women's Royal Rumble match winner Becky Lynch made her entrance and confronted Rousey. After recapping their rivalry that began at Survivor Series, Lynch chose to face Rousey for the Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania 35. Seth Rollins celebrated his Royal Rumble match victory. Triple H then came out and congratulated him, but said that Rollins needed to choose which champion he wanted to face at WrestleMania 35 by the end of the night. Later, Rollins confronted Brock Lesnar. After an ensuing brawl, Rollins chose to face Lesnar and goes on to beat him for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania. Finn Bálor addressed his loss to Brock Lesnar, but stated that he made Lesnar believe that Bálor could win. Bálor was then confronted by Intercontinental Champion Bobby Lashley and his manager Lio Rush, and Lashley attacked Bálor. SmackDown On the following SmackDown, Becky Lynch addressed how everything had changed for her since with the women's Royal Rumble match. Charlotte Flair then came out and congratulated Lynch and stated that Lynch won, but was never in the match in the first place, and that Lynch would not be where she was at if it were not for Flair. An ensuing brawl broke out between Flair and Lynch until referees separated them. As compensation for not being able to compete in the men's Royal Rumble match, R-Truth was granted a United States Championship match against new champion Shinsuke Nakamura. Truth defeated Nakamura to win the title, which led to Rusev coming out and declaring that Truth was not worthy of the title. Rusev then challenged Truth for the title, but was also defeated. After the match, Rusev turned heel and, along with Nakamura, attacked Truth. Daniel Bryan, along with his new ally Rowan, revealed a new WWE Championship belt, made from hemp and wood. He was then interrupted by AJ Styles, which prompted Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe, Randy Orton, and Mustafa Ali to come out and challenge Bryan for the title. After an ensuing brawl, Triple H announced that Bryan would defend the title against the five at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view inside the Elimination Chamber. New SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Miz and Shane McMahon celebrated their title win along with Miz's father. Later that night, The Usos defeated Heavy Machinery (Otis Dozovic and Tucker Knight), The Bar (Sheamus and Cesaro), and The New Day (represented by Big E and Kofi Kingston) to become the number one contenders for the titles at Elimination Chamber. Results Cruiserweight Results Raw/SmackDown Results Men's Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations : – Raw : – SmackDown : – 205 Live : – NXT : – NXT UK : – Unassigned : – Legend A new entrant came out approximately every 90 seconds. Women's Royal Rumble match entrances and eliminations : – Raw : – SmackDown : – 205 Live : – NXT : – NXT UK : – Unassigned : – Legend A new entrant came out approximately every 90 seconds. Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * Royal Rumble Category:Royal Rumble Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events Category:2019 Pay-Per-View Events